University of Mississippi welcomes largest freshman class in its history

The University of Mississippi has experienced a record-breaking increase in incoming freshman students this year. 

Officially, numbers will not be available until after Friday, the last day to add and drop classes. 

However, an unofficial tally of the freshmen that make up the class of 2014 was released yesterday.

This year, the university welcomed 3,089 new freshmen on campus. 

This number is a 19.9 percent increase from last fall.

“I don’t think anybody anticipated this type of dramatic growth,” Whitman Smith, director of enrollment services, said.

Although the increase in enrollment has caused more crowded places, especially in places like the Student Union, Smith said it is great news for the school.

“I think mostly it means a lot of positive in an era of terrible state of support declining, in an era where operating expenses are going down every year in terms of what we get from our stat,e and a terrible economy,” Smith said. 

“You make that up in one of several ways– more students who pay tuition, more contracts and grants and more donations from alumni. We are fortunate that all three have gone up at the same time.”

Smith said that just as important as new enrollment is retention. 

He said that there has been an increase in students who have chosen to remain at the University of Mississippi after their freshman year.

Unofficially, 83.1 percent of freshmen from last year chose to continue their education at the University. 

Two years ago that number was only 78.3 percent.

On all campuses, the preliminary enrollment numbers total at 19,536. 

This is yet another record for the University. 

It comes to a 6.5 percent increase.

The Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College enrolled 288 freshmen. 

A new program, Provost Scholars, began this year with an inaugural class of more than 350 students.

“The thing about enrollment is that one year’s worth of growth doesn’t mean much,” Smith said. 

“Two years mean something; three or four or five straight years means obviously you have a good product, people like it and they want to come here.”

This is evident in the recent release of Forbes’ annual list of America’s Best Colleges. 

The University of Mississippi ranked 24 on this list, between State University of New York’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and University of California at Berkeley.

This list is compiled by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity in conjunction with Forbes.

The University has hired new faculty to help deal with the numbers, Smith said. 

The University of Mississippi is still working to facilitate the increase in students on campus.